[溫網]Hewitt Routs Rochus
Hewitt Routs Rochus
cGetty/ P.Cole Monday, June 20, 2005
Impending fatherhood to look forward to, wedding arrangements to make and the
small matter of a grand slam title to win - Lleyton Hewitt is a busy man at
the moment.
As Bec Cartwright, soon to be Mrs Hewitt, looked on, her fiance served his
way into the second round, cruising past Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-3,
6-3, 6-1. He pinged down 19 aces, 32 unreturnable serves and 43 clean
winners. Against that sort of form, Rochus did not stand a chance.
Rochus is the older, slightly taller but slightly less successful of the two
Belgian brothers. He is two inches higher than his diminutive 5'5" sibling,
Olivier, but, at No. 47, 12 places lower in the world pecking order. Olivier,
whose greatest ambition in life is "to be taller", has had some memorable
moments at Wimbledon, not the least of which was beating his brother in the
opening round in 2002 and then going on to oust Marat Safin in the second.
Christophe's best result came in 2000 when he reached the second round. He
was walloped by Sjeng Schalken when he got there but at least he had won a
match.
Then again, the rest of the circuit has not been treating Rochus too kindly,
either. Regardless of the surface or the time of year, he had managed to lose
in the first round of eight tournaments on his way to Wimbledon. And, once
Hewitt has worked out what to do about Rochus's slice and nippy wee legs, the
Belgian never looked likely to improve on that record.
Once the first set had been banked, Hewitt began to run away with the match.
From time to time Rochus would see the door slightly ajar, with the sight of
a chance in the distance, and then Hewitt would slam it shut again. After an
exchange of breaks at the start of the first set, Hewitt got his nose in
front to take a 5-3 lead and from there he never looked back. And the better
Hewitt got, the more Rochus looked like he desperately wanted to be somewhere
else.
This is only Hewitt's second tournament since the middle of March. Hurting
his foot in the final of the Indian Wells Masters, he had a minor operation
to repair the damage but, just when he thought he was ready to return to
active service, he fell down the stairs in his new Sydney home and cracked a
rib. Easing his way back at Queen's Club 10 days ago, he was outgunned by Ivo
Karlovic in the quarter-finals.
Since then Hewitt has clearly been hard at work on the practice court. Even
if Rochus was not the strongest of opponents, the Australian still looked
keen, eager and sharp. Applying the pressure at will, no part of his game
seemed rusty and he was looking perfectly at home on the manicured turf of
No.1 Court.
Written by Alix Ramsay
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